The Lost Promise
by Liv of life
Summary: It’s October 31st and Harry Potter is a proud one year and three months old, how can he explain his awe, happiness, love or terror when the biggest word he knows is ‘Elephant’? How can he remember what he can’t describe?


**Lost Promises  
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**Summary:** It's October 31st and Harry Potter is a proud one year and three months old, how can he explain his awe, happiness, love or fear when the biggest word he knows is 'Elephant'? How can he remember what he can't describe?

**Pairing:** James/Lily

**Rating: **PG-13

**Written For: **Novice Writers' fanfiction contest: www. novicewriters. net

**CHALLENGE ME! See below for details**  
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**Lost Promises  
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When you don't know the words amazing, everywhere, probability and most importantly _finger_ it's difficult to express just how bizarre you feel when a pidgeon flies out of nowhere, lets loose a jettison of white excretion which in turn, out of all the places in all the world streams down the pinky on your left hand in a perfectly straight line.

"Mummy! Look!"  
"Oh no! Yucky!"  
"No! Look!"  
"Yes I can see, let me wash it off for you."

Harry didn't know what the word for it was but his shoulders felt all squiggly (in the very worst possible way), the crooks of his elbows wanted to go 'BAM' and his eyebrows were so heavy they were almost covering half of what he could see.

"Nooo! LOOK!"  
"Yes dear."

As Harry's Mummy pushed his little finger under the stream of water from the kitchen tap he could see out the window a little brown dog barking madly and trying to jump up a tree to reach a cat. Each time it leapt, the dog would hurt its nose on the trunk making it run in berserk circles before trying again. Harry knew exactly how the dog was feeling.

"There we are- all clean!"  
Mummy smiled and then stopped smiling  
"That, Harry is not a very pleasant look to bestow upon your Mummy."  
Harry sighed  
"Oh hmph to you too Mr. Grumpy- Bum! For goodness sake we couldn't leave the bird poo on your finger now could we? It's all germy."  
Harry wished he was a dog.

It's true, one year olds cop a hard time of it when it comes to expressing themselves. They will have an incredible epiphany and the other person will just wash it down the kitchen sink. And if there is one thing Harry knows, it's that when things go down the kitchen sink they don't ever come back again.

"James…"  
"Lily…"  
"Euh… you know those Tiffany earrings you bought me? The ones with all the diamonds in them?"  
"Yeeess…"  
"Well uhm… one of them sort of fell down the kitchen sink when I was doing my makeup…"  
"Bloody hell Lil is that all? We can just Accio it!"  
"I can't believe I didn't think of that!"  
"Hang on, you haven't used the sink since have you?"  
"Ye… oh shit… yes."  
"Ah."  
"Yes."  
"Mmhmm."  
"Hell."  
"Accio, Lily's lost Tiffany earring!"  
"Shit……………James?"  
"…. Yes? _Dear_."  
"It didn't work."  
"….I can see that…… The hell were you doing your makeup in the kitchen anyway!"  
"It's got better lighting!"  
"Christ Lily! We haven't insured those things yet!"  
"I know!"  
"SHIT! Excuse me while I drown myself. That's… no don't think about it, I don't want to know how much money you just LITERALLY WASHED DOWN THE DRAIN! Christ!"  
"Oh SHUT UP!"  
"Shut up! It's gone! Forever! Shit! I _knew_ that sink was cursed!"

So you see, as the kitchen sink was cursed Harry's epiphany would be lost for eternity to find. However, being a smart little boy Harry knew he could make himself remember it and in a few years time he would be able to tell his Mummy and Daddy all about it. Thinking this made Harry feel as though a whole heap of air had rushed into him through his back and filled him full of light and good things that sparkled.

There were footsteps in the hallway. The sparkles inside Harry went rushing up through his neck, through his arms and shooting out through the tips of his fingers.  
"Daddy!"  
The footsteps stopped and a hand holding a blue and yellow dinosaur slowly appeared around the corner of the doorway. The dinosaur and Harry assessed one another quietly, a beam of goodness shooting from black eyes to green. The dinosaur jigged abruptly.  
"Roawr!"  
Harry didn't know what to do for a moment, but then his Daddy's perfect Daddy face appeared around the doorway his hand twitched the dinosaur and he said:  
"Roawr!"  
A mass of twirling fairies flew into Harry's tummy and they felt so good that he laughed  
"Roawr!"

The fairies swirled all through his body and he laughed and squirmed until some of them moved into his Mummy and she was laughing too and then his Daddy wanted some fairies as well and came bounding over to them, and then Daddy gave Harry and Mummy a great big hug.

If Harry knew the words, he would write all this down on a piece of paper because he never ever wanted to forget how his Daddy held his Mummy and he while they all shared spinning fairies filled with light. There were two things for Harry to remember today; his epiphany and _this, _this moment.

"You're late James, I was worried."  
"I'm sorry-"  
"You said only one hour, you were gone two."  
"I know, I'm sorry, Moody was being paranoid, said I shouldn't have left the house."  
"He was right."  
"It's okay, I'm alright."  
"I know."  
Daddy kissed Mummy and Harry watched, feeling all fuzzy, warm and tingly.  
"I love you Lily."  
"I love you Jim."  
Harry sniffed.  
"Oh! And we can't forget my little man!" Daddy took Harry from Mummy and squished his nose onto Harry's  
"I love you little man."  
Mummy smiled,  
"So do I Ha…" Mummy stopped talking and went very still.  
Harry heard the front door open  
"Pa…"  
Daddy's hand quickly covered Harry's mouth.  
"Peter wasn't coming over was he?" Lily whispered

As Daddy shook his head Harry could feel Daddy's hand on his face tighten with the air in the kitchen. The air was creeping in, forcing itself onto the back of Harry's neck, pushing, up, down, in and out all at the same time, it was holding Harry stiller than he'd ever been before.  
Daddy started to bend his legs towards the door, so slowly Harry thought he could hear every muscle creaking. Mummy followed, one hand on Daddy and one on Harry, it was stiff and dry and cold, Harry didn't like it.

Daddy and Mummy took out their wands as they entered the corridor.  
The silence eased into Harry's throat and he couldn't breathe.

"Hello Potter."  
Everything charged into Harry. There was no more still, no more quiet, too much air, he could hear something with sharp claws was tearing his Daddy's voice and Harry could feel them digging into his own chest.  
Daddy was yelling and pushing and Harry was in Mummy's arms but he didn't want to leave Daddy!  
"Daddy!"  
Someone was laughing. It was all too quick, everything was chasing everything else. Mummy was gasping and holding Harry too tight, she was taking him away from Daddy!  
"Daddy!"  
They were in Mummy and Daddy'sbedroom and then there was green light through the door.  
Mummy was screaming and she was all wet, on her face and on her dress, Harry could feel it when she tried to put him under a pillow and the covers of the bed. He didn't want to be under there  
"NO! DADDY!"  
Mummy was making scary noises, like an animal; big long moans and howling and then she was screaming and someone else was yelling and then there was an even bigger green light than before and Mummy was quiet.  
"MUMMY! MUMMY! DADDY!"  
Harry couldn't feel anything but the ripping all over his body, he was crying and trying to make all the badness go out, but it wouldn't go, _it wouldn't go!  
_There was more green light and then there was burning and noise and everything was moving but Mummy wasn't moving and Daddy wasn't here. The claws finally gashed through Harry's body, tearing him all through inside.

Then everything stopped. Harry felt himself float away from his body and heard himself bawling and saw his Mummy lying there and didn't see his Daddy anywhere. And Harry knew, that he would never remember this, he would forget it and he would remember the bird poo and he would remember the fairies and warm fuzzies- he would remember those but he wouldn't remember this, _he wouldn't_- he promised.  
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**Author's Note:** Hi there! I am incredibly sorry I haven't updated my other stories but I am in a complete funk with all of them- I've decided to take a leaf out of… well it was someone's book and offer myself up for CHALLENGES! _**CHALLENGE ME!**_ PLEASE! Anything! Any pairing, any genre, any situation- CHALLENGE MEEEEE! If you don't want to do so in review- my email address is available via my profile.

Thankyou!


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